Stiff Goldenrod
Stiff Goldenrod has a special place in my heart. It was the first goldenrod I identified on my own. It was in the ditch beside the gravel road that I drive on to get home.
In late summer, Stiff Goldenrod was a champion in my prairie wildflower garden. Sunup to sundown, it fed bees and butterflies. The flowers are long past now, in late November, but the plant is still showering benefits.
Now ripe seeds crown the goldenrods. The seed heads are soft, a pleasure to touch. The seeds go flying off on the breeze, thanks to their white parachutes. Some will land and sprout to become new Stiff Goldenrods.
Stiff Goldenrod has a special place in my heart. It was the first goldenrod I identified on my own. It was in the ditch beside the gravel road that I drive on to get home. I didn’t know goldenrods very well yet, but I could see it was something special.
Unlike most goldenrods, this one had rounded flower clusters, like parachutes. The leaves look rounded and succulent, almost like vegetables. Near the top, the leaves clasp the stem so tight they almost wrap around it, like they just can’t get close enough.
I was excited about my discovery. This goldenrod has been here on this land longer than people have. For thousands of years, this flower has passed its genetic identity on from one generation to the next. That first summer after finding the flower, I often stopped my car and waded through the weeds to look at it up close and see how it was changing as the season progressed. Maybe also to pay my respect. Seemed like it deserved some.
I started to wonder if there was any way I could help this plant, that somehow has survived all this time, despite the utter domination of the environment by humans and modern agriculture. I wanted to do something to help it stay in the world.
So when it finished blooming, I collected some of its seeds and tried growing them in my flower garden. Two years later, I looked out my window and saw a blaze of yellow flowers. The whole garden was alive with bees and butterflies.
Stiff Goldenrod became one of the first flowers in what has turned into my prairie flower garden. Now I save seeds every year. They’re soft as down, because of their airy parachutes. Individual seeds are small enough to dance on the head of a dressmaker’s small-headed pin. Seedlings come up looking vigorous and eager to grow.
The first year, the plants do not bloom. They devote their energy to growing a good root system that will survive drought and grazing. The second year, they bloom. Before the buds open, they look like miniature chartreuse cauliflowers.
Goldenrods are valuable to birds, bees, butterflies, and other wildlife. Stiff Goldenrod might be too big and too vigorous for a small garden. However, for a field, or a prairie garden, or to support bees and butterflies, it is pure delight.
Scientific name: Oligoneuron rigidum or Solidago rigida
Common names: Stiff Goldenrod
Plant family: Aster family (Asteraceae).
It grows in most soils, but not in a wetland. It likes full sun but can take a little shade. It grows four feet tall and blooms in late summer. It’s a good forage plant for pollinators.
It grows native throughout the Midwest.
Cultural Notes
Cold Stratification
In order to germinate, the seeds need a period of being cold and moist for at least 60 days to break dormancy. This is a mechanism to prevent the seeds that fall in summer from germinating in summer, so that the young plants will have a full season to develop before going through winter.
The easiest way to accomplish the cold stratification is simply to plant seeds outdoors in fall. Plant seeds on the surface of garden soil, or in flats. Nature will do the stratification for you.
USDA Zones 3-9
Full or partial sun
Medium-wet to dry soil
Blooms late summer into fall
Grows 4 feet tall
Elbow room: 1 - 2 feet
Blooms 2nd year from seed
Excellent article.